Updates for BlueEyedOS and Cosmoe

BlueEyedOS has made some progress in the past few months, and here are two brandnew screenshots showing the progress. In the meantime, the DirectFB-based Cosmoe 0.6 is expected to be released around Christmas, but Bill Hayden has already released a developer release. Update: More BeOS-related news today: Unconfirmed rumors want OpenBeOS to have been renamed to “Walter Operating System”, while OpenBFS 1.0 Beta3 is posted for testing.

29 Comments

I poked around the Cosmoe website and still can’t figure out what DirectFB means (granted, I didn’t searth that hard).

Anyone care to shed some light?

2002-11-08 10:54 pm

myself! Soundplay is still the best!

2002-11-08 11:00 pm

From directfb.org

/clip

DirectFB is a thin library that provides developers with hardware graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction, integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows and multiple display layers on top of the Linux Framebuffer Device. It is a complete hardware abstraction layer with software fallbacks for every graphics operation that is not supported by the underlying hardware. DirectFB adds graphical power to embedded systems and sets a new standard for graphics under Linux.

Hardware accelerated graphics

DirectFB provides the following graphics operations:

Rectangle filling/drawing

Triangle filling/drawing

Line drawing

Flat shaded triangles

(Stretched) blitting

Blending with an alphachannel (a.k.a. texture alpha)

Blending with a constant alpha blend factor (a.k.a. alpha modulation)

Nine different blending functions respectively for source and destination, so all Porter/Duff rules are supported

Colorizing (a.k.a. color modulation)

Source color keying

Destination color keying

2002-11-08 11:01 pm

My understanding is that DirectFB is similar for linux to what the VESA VBE used to be for DOS (and other BIOS-based OSes) – direct graphics access to a framebuffer (possibly accelerated).

2002-11-08 11:03 pm

Uh, never mind what I said, somebody was faster and went to dig out the relevant information.

2002-11-08 11:58 pm

I want to try BlueEyedOS when they release it as beta or full version. From the second screenshot, it needs work more on the smooth curve (circle and etc) of RatioButton and Tab. I like how the UI looks so far, thought. It’s nice UI!

2002-11-09 1:40 am

Has anyone thought to do the installs under VPC, since R5 seems to install sort of ok?

2002-11-09 2:40 am

Well guys, here I am, again.

BlueEyedOS is growing in BeOS users mind! It’s good!

We will keep the good work, of course!

Thanks!

Michael Vinícius de Oliveira

BlueEyedOS Webmaster

2002-11-09 2:58 am

Looking forward to trying B.E.O.S in the future, it’s looking very promising! I really like the look of all the widgets, very smooth!

If it has a nice API I may even learn to code for it (when it’s ready of course) 🙂

-misza

2002-11-09 6:01 am

the tab wasn’t yellow! It’s never going to work!

Seriously, it’s good to have the color optional, but yellow tabs are part of the BeOS experiance, you need to have them default.

2002-11-09 9:09 am

The walter crap that has been going on is a VERY sick joke!

When it comes to things that are as personal as the BeOS, it’s not nice to go playing with people’s hopes for the name for openbeos. Those who created this farce should hang their head in shame.

<check the openbeos “mailing list” archives if you’re not convinced it’s a very sick joke>

2002-11-09 9:53 am

Can’t find anything sick here… It’s a humorous retort to all the whiners blubbering over the 15-name list. Get over it. It’s fun

2002-11-09 11:14 am

lichtgestalt: Sorry, but it’s starting to get out of hand.

When you have serious developers whom a lot of people respect come into BeShare, and do nothing to denounce the rumour, you tend to get people’s ire, and eventually, this will spiral out of control.

Let’s put an end to this ‘Walter’ farce here and now. I personally find it offensive that it would even be considered as a name for our beloved OS, especially after the openBeOS team tried so hard to set things right and asked the community at large to vote on their 15 choices. Are we going to let their efforts go to waste because of a silly name that has so far only been substantiated as rumour?

I didn’t think so. With that in mind, let’s please kill this rumour here, and now.

As to the naming process itself, that issue is still (in my mind) open for debate, and should be reviewed.

To mentioned developer parties, re: progress… Keep up the fantastic work all. You have the neverending support and committed hearts of hundreds if not thousands of people who are waiting with baited breath for every drop of good news.

Before we forget, I would like to say on behalf of the community, a sincere ‘Thank you.’ for all your hard work thus far.

Peace.

-Chris Simmons,

Avid BeOS User.

The BeOSJournal.

2002-11-09 11:15 am

Well, the only thing I had against BE OS wasn’t the speed or the choice of kernel/OS/graphic server. It is the license. Right now, you guys are taking on the task of marketing and advertising this OS…. maybe you might succeed, but I doubt you guys would. No offence, you guys are nice guys. Great programmers, I assume, and geeks (of course). But from all the articles and comments and whatnot made but the core developers, I doubt you guys are real businessmen.

So in other words, the furthest I think BE OS would go is a geek toy. No offence, sorry if I caused any.

Plus, open development have its plus. There are more people that can give useful input into the building process. You may not want BE OS to get sidetracked, and open development won’t cause that. Open development isn’t anarchy. You can tune out suggestions that goes directly against your hopes, plans and dreams. Plus, open development would cause people to be more interested in participating in code finishing, plus patch writing and bug reports.

My 2 cents.

2002-11-09 1:00 pm

The only thing getting out of hand here is your attitude. First you start demanding the OpenBeOS Team (a team that you’re not part of, BTW) to do things the way *YOU* (in bahalf of hundreds of people, according to yourself) want. Then you threaten me personally. Now you do all this storm about *NOTHING*.

I told you once and I will repeat. Go use your energy in something productive.

If the only way for you to stop this nonsense is for us to stop talking about Walter, then I am sorry to say we won’t. If the fact that it is obviously a joke is not enough, then the proiblem is you, not us.

-Bruno

2002-11-09 1:41 pm

Too bad, I really like the name Walter. It’s funny and original.

The only good name is just a joke…. damn.

Begin, Haiku, Jaffa, Nemo and so on. Just boring.

At least Jaffa,… will be compatible to the Opteron CPU, sice both will have the “Crappy Name”(TM) feature.

You are standing on Holy Ground. Please respect the place you are standing on.

I consider BeOS my Holy Ground and this is my sanctuary.

Please respect that.

OK?

2002-11-09 10:45 pm

> My understanding is that DirectFB is similar for linux to what the VESA

> VBE used to be for DOS (and other BIOS-based OSes) – direct graphics

> access to a framebuffer (possibly accelerated).

No, it sounds much more like DirectX.

> The only thing getting out of hand here is your attitude. First you

> start demanding the OpenBeOS Team (a team that you’re not part of, BTW) to

> do things the way *YOU* (in bahalf of hundreds of people, according to

> yourself) want. Then you threaten me personally. Now you do all this storm

> about *NOTHING*.

/me vows to ignore future posts by Bruno

2002-11-10 1:42 am

now seriously this has got to stop.

obos is on track needs more developers, chris voiced an OPINION that is his take on something that is dear to him.

and he does infact talk for many of the beos/obos community.

a great mishap was to register the walter domain on about the same day as the voting was put to an end, and as for the walter joke, i dont get it still, i should never have come this far out into the open.

if it was indeed a joke from the start it should have been kept between those who understood it .

kudos for the great logo btw.

and before i forget … the women…how are they these days

Cheers

R

2002-11-10 7:58 am

Come on people, Walter is a very good name! I can’t understand why ‘Moto’ will be better, or Indigo, or… yuk… haiku. It’s vivid, lively and catches your attention. So once you start thinking about it, it’s really really good.

So, to Michael, Bruno et al, if you read these comments, please keep the name Walter, or at least make a second voting round just for that. Please. I hate that 15-name list.

2002-11-10 8:12 am

How often has it to be said??!! It is a joke.

So will you please stop this Walter thing already?!

While we’re at it: What kind of journalism is it to put an “unconfirmed rumor” on this news site and not state that this unconfirmed rumor has been confirmed to be wrong? Or do you wait for Mr. Phipps to contact you personally to repeat his words?

Anyway, I think I visit Axel in his basement for a laugh.

2002-11-10 12:06 pm

I think they should kept that joke internal, This is just a proof that they dont are serious ( some are ).

“they need more developers” -I dont agree with you there Robert!

Check the teams that have made most progress, then you see its a team with few members, Big teams are hard to manage ( you can ask me, I am a educated project leader soon =)

I know that all the developers are doing this on their spare time, with no money and its amazing. But if you dont intend to be seroius please inform us so we can make the stand ( stay or leave). Many out there put there trust in this project, and I ask the whole OpenBeOS team, do you do it for your own sake or for the future users?

Whatever you answer its right, but please bare in mind that some are here because *YOU* bringing them hope of a future.

*Thanks to all the one involved in OBOS, you are doing a amazing job, and I love it* ( so dont take me wrong )

/Konrad

2002-11-10 1:42 pm

Stupid flamers. OBOS teams strives to make a complete BeOS replacement and you don’t even allow them to have fun in the process… Why should they *work* for you anyway? Why does everyone take everything for granted? And then, when they have done it, you will come and use it and spew flames around beacuse the new os doesn’t support this or that or doesn’t work exactly as YOU want it to work. And then there are big words like “we can make the stand” or shit like that. Bastards.

2002-11-10 3:48 pm

This is so silly. IIRC Axel Dorfler and BGA had a little inside joke about calling the OS “Walter”. Everyone ‘in the know’ knows it’s a joke. Still, Michael Phipps (team lead) actually had to come out and say “IT’S A JOKE” on the OBOS mailing lists. And people -still- don’t get it.

Pity of it is, the OBOS team is not getting paid for their efforts. Unless there’s money changing hands I don’t know of they’re doing all this work and taking time away from other things in their lives for free. There’s no reason any or all couldn’t say “I’ve had it!” and walk. Abusing them over this naming business or any other matter will not help. According to a post on the OBOS list one dev did quit this weekend – probably over this nonsense.

Frankly, I don’t care what OBOS calls itself. I’d hope the distros would pick a name that would be marketable. IMO they are the face of the new OS.

If OBOS succeeds in recreating and extending BeOS in the face of all the infighting then it will be a miracle.

2002-11-10 9:10 pm

Hi guys again!

BeOS will be forever BeOS.

OpenBeOS is a diffent direction to the same goal.

Then see: I want an OS that do the same things of my beloved BeOS.

This OS can be called of: MeOS, SorryOS, ShutupOS, since DO THE SAME THING OF MY ORIGINAL BEOS!!!

Stop of popup messages of that the new OpenBeOS is a joke! STOP! We are a community!

Michael Vinícius de Oliveira

BlueEyedOS webmaster

2002-11-11 2:26 am

While we’re all weighing in…

I had all night to think about it, and even though it’s a joke, I must confess that I like “The Walter Operating System” much better than “Haiku” or any of the other names being put forth for the OpenBeOS project.

In the final analysis, Michael Vinícius de Oliveira says it right-fundamentally, I don’t care what it’s called, as long at it does the same thing.

Thanks for listening. Who is Walter, anyway?

2002-11-11 4:15 am

[i[> My understanding is that DirectFB is similar for linux to what the VESA

> VBE used to be for DOS (and other BIOS-based OSes) – direct graphics

> access to a framebuffer (possibly accelerated).

No, it sounds much more like DirectX. [/i]

No, DirectFB is closer to GDI in Windows. What sounds really like DirectX is OpenDX :-). DirectX is an API, DirectFB is something that takes advantage of the framebuffer.